Wear coating and treatments

When surfaces moving relative to each other operate in a well-lubricated condition, they are fully separated. In these cases, mechanical wear usually does not occur. Unfortunately, such ideal operating conditions are rarely achieved in mechanical systems and wear usually limits the operational life of a component or system. It has been estimated that the adverse economic impact of wear accounts for as much as 7% of the gross national product (GNP) in many industrialized nations.1 Because the economics of wear are of such huge proportions, a considerable amount of resources have been devoted to developing surface treatments that can mitigate the effect of wear on the reliability and performance of mechanical systems.2.